Prologue:

One of the coolest things about writing this blog has been the ability to get in games with people that read it when I travel. In this instance, I had to pick my sister up from the Seattle airport, and was able to get over to Mox Boarding House for a game with my Grymkin beforehand.

My opponent had a pretty typical pairing of Amon and Severius 2, and with my current pairing of Dreamer/Heretic, there's almost no way I can drop the Heretic list into Severius 2, but he also can't risk dropping Amon into that many weaponmasters.

As a result, we ended up with the inevitable "safe" choices, and had the Dreamer vs. Severius 2. In a tournament game, I would have ADRed out a unit of Dread Rots for another pair of Crabbits.

I chose the Sacrifice and Labyrinth Arcana and lost the roll off, taking the side with the rubble. Artifice of Deviation was going to be huge in this matchup - it would make my Skin and Moans ridiculously hard to hit on the way in and then, combined with Labyrinth, make them fairly immune to melee retaliation.

I also threatened farther with melee thanks to their Lurker animus, and with Enrage and Manifest Destiny I felt confident that my Skins could kill Menoth heavies.

I should also note that my opponent was under the distraction of needing to get home for an infant. We'll get in a proper, unhurried game sometime soon!

Enough theory - the game!

Menoth turn 1:

Everything runs up and my opponent remembers his third heavy, so we put it on the table.

Arcane Ward started on Blessing, and Sevy basically just allocated a focus to each jack and ran up.

Grymkin turn 1:

I put Mirage on a Skin and place Artifice of Deviation up front. Both Skins run into it, but I'm a derp and after checking the oddsmachine of him one rounding a Skin from range, I decide not to get my Crabbits up there (this was a poor decision if you were wondering).

The Dread Rots run to fill in, the Death Knell covers everything in its aura, and I move up the Gremlin Swarms fairly aggressively.

Menoth turn 2:

Battle goes up, and Sevy Rebukes the Miraged Skin and Moans so that it can't trample up to his Reckoners next turn.

The Covenant advances and says no knockdown.

The Vessel moves up and nails both 12s, and then all three Reckoners connect and kill him to the box.

Critically, my opponent does not contest the right hand zone.

Grymkin turn 2:

Well that was bad! Time to start applying some Scenario pressure. He only has two units (choir and Rhoven) and neither can take the left zone, so I don't need to worry about that.

Dreamer goes Incorporeal this turn and drops Artifice.

My heavies shuffle up to the right, and a pile of Dread Rots run up.

The Dreamer casts Mirage on the Cage Rager and puts Artifice of Deviation down again.

The painted Rots take the right hand zone and I run Gremlin Swarms up into his jacks.

I give the Skin another corpse token with the Death Knell and make sure it covers everything.

My Rattler goes in and deals four damage to the Covenant.

I score a point!

Score: 1 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Menoth turn 3:

The thing about Dread Rots is that you can't really ignore them. Arcane Ward stays up, and the Vessel puts its shots into some Rots and the Skin and Moans.

All three Reckoners shoot into it as well, but the last misses.

Sevy throws an Ashes to Ashes at the Rots, leaving one alive.

I score another point.

Score: 2 - 0Advantage Grymkin

Grymkin turn 3:

I see an opening here. I leach from the Rattler and the Rager and upkeep Mirage which triggers.

The Rattler moves around the Covenant and kills it, creating a large Phantasm.

EDIT: Per Infernal Ruling this would not have worked as we played it. Man-sized means that the model is considered a small-based model for any effect. and would therefore have not allowed me to make a large phantasm from the Covenant. The more you know right?

That Phantasm runs and Bolldozes Blessing out of the way of the Vessel and then back out. Blessing opts not to free strike as he does not want to trigger any Arcana or Arcane Pulse.

The Dreamer moves up, Wraithbanes the Skin and Moans and puts up Manifest Destiny.

The Rager kills the Vessel, and I premeasure where my Skin will end up. I put the Gremlin Swarm right behind that point.

The old Twilight Sister heals his aspects back, and Karianna enrages him. The Death Knell hands him the final corpse, and he charges in at Blessing, and thanks to the Gremlin Swarm can't be pushed out of melee. It only takes one attack to cripple the shield anyway, and the second kills him.

I run the last Dread Rot into the left hand zone and score three points for the win.

Victory for the Grymkin!

Post-Game Thoughts:

I think this game highlighted one of the aspects of Menoth theme lists that Chandler and I have discussed a fair amount now - it's really hard to score on a lot of the Scenarios with Creator's Might since you're only bringing backline, support units which aren't going to score the zones very often.

This might change rather drastically if they can start taking mercs in themes (gosh, Idrians literally everywhere), but for now it remains a weakness in the faction.

I'm not sure if my opponent could necessarily have done much differently with his positioning here. If he exposes a heavy, it dies to my Cage Rager, which will take some serious work to kill thanks to Artifice of Deviation being rough terrain for Menoth heavies and Labyrinth potentially making them speed 3. Maybe putting a Reckoner next to the Vessel is the right call, since that means I have to devote significant resources to clear that side, but he also can't neglect the right zone for much longer.